craftlog

My sister got me a giant box of thrifted yarn for Christmas. Ooooh. One of the yarns is Red Heart Mohcora, which is rather old by the looks of the label. It’s 72% mohair, 13% wool, and 15% nylon, in a nice dark gray. Since it’s way too scratchy to make anything wearable, I decided to try felting it. The label advertises “washable colors,” so I didn’t have high hopes at first. The instructions for washing on the inside of the label were really for handwashing, though, with all sorts of cautions about using cool water and avoiding agitation. And sure enough, it felts great. A 5.5 inch square in garter stitch on 8 needles (cast on 20) shrunk to a 4 inch square after about 20 minutes of effort on my part. Since I’m fresh out of quarters, I did it the old fashioned way alternating hot and cold water with plenty of soap and agitation. One new thing I tried and liked was using a bamboo sushi mat to help agitate. I rolled the piece up in the mat and rolled the bundle back and forth, dunking it in the soapy water occasionally. It worked like a charm. It did stretch it a fair bit, though, but rotating the felt frequently seemed to prevent serious mis-shaping. Now, what to make from it? Hmmm.

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